Rikomagic MK06 Review: How’s Rikomagic’s First Amlogic S905 Box?

The Rikomagic MK06 is the company’s latest Android TV box and their first using the quadcore Amlogic S905. Opting for lower-end specifications with a price to match, is Rikomagic’s latest device a winner? Read our Rikomagic MK06 review to find out.

Connectivity

Physical

What’s In The Box?

Rikomagic have provided a fairly comprehensive set of inclusions in the box:

1x Rikomagic MK06 unit

1x Power Adapter

1x IR Remote Control

1x HDMI Cable

1x USB-to-USB cable

1x English Instruction Manual

Rikomagic MK06 Review: Design

Rikomagic have played it safe with the design of their latest Android TV box. Reusing the case from the MK12 and MK68, the Rikomagic MK06 is a black square with a single rounded corner.

The top plate features a subtle geometric pattern and the whole unit is made of glossy plastic. Unfortunately, this means its probe to fingerprints so you’ll need to to keep it clean.

The design itself is unobtrusive however and fairly practical, with ample room to plug in cables and USB devices that you need to.

Ports are located on the left and rear of the unit. The left side houses two fullsize USB 2.0 ports and a micro SD card slot.

Jumping over to the rear of MK06, there’s DC In, optical audio, Ethernet, HDMI out and another fullsize USB 2.0 port.

Rikomagic have continued their “reuse” approach, packing in the same IR remote we’ve seen with their other Android boxes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as I’ve always found Rikomagic’s remotes pretty decent.

All the key functionality is here, with Android commands, directional buttons and volume controls. There’s even a mouse mode if you need it, though is suggest forking out for an Airmouse such as the Rikomagic MK705 for a much better experience.

Thankfully, the buttons are pretty quiet, unlike some of the cheap included remotes I’ve seen to date so they’re not distracting when used. Range was fine, able to reach across my lounge room with ease.

Rikomagic MK06 Review: Using It

The Rikomagic MK06 boots automatically when plugged in. A cold boot takes around 59 seconds With a wireless keyboard and mouse plugged in. Resuming from standby is instant.

The Rikomagic MK06’s UI is the same as we’ve seen on previous models, with various tiles for key apps, themed collections of apps (such as games) and the app drawer.

The launcher is definitely TV friendly, though animations aren’t smooth enough, making it feel less polished compared to other launchers I’ve seen shipped with TV boxes.

There’s a few preinstalled apps, with Kodi 15.2, Media Center, Miracast, Skype and, interestingly, iPerf all making an appearance. Kodi 15.2 came with a whole bunch of add-ons preinstalled so I simply uninstalled it and installed a stock version of Kodi 16.0 from the Google Play store.

Speaking of the Google Play Store, it works and the device is rooted out of the box for those that need it.

HDMI CEC is supported and worked well with my Samsung TV, allowing me to use the TV’s remote to control the Android box.

The MK06 also features a single 4.08GB partition with 3.5GB free out of the box, making it much easier for users to use all of the included storage how they want. 3.5GB isn’t a lot though so you’ll need to be mindful of how many apps you need to install.

The Rikomagic MK06 is also the first Rikomagic box to come with OTA update support. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to actually test it as my box was already pre-installed with the latest firmware.

The firmware feels pretty stable. However, I did occasionally experience a several-second pause when exiting apps sometimes. I also had issues with luckluster 3D performance and benchmarks failing (more on that below).

Rikomagic MK06 Review: Media Playback

The Rikomagic MK06 came preinstalled with Kodi 15.2. However, I had issues with video only rendering in the top left of the screen. Updating to Kodi 16.0 via the Google Play Store seemed to fix the issue so I’ve used that version for my testing.

Codec

Video Performance (Kodi 16.0)

1080p 3D SBS H.264

OK

1080p 3D ABL H.264

OK

1080p24 H.264

OK

1080p High Bitrate H.264

OK

1080p60 H.264

OK

720p50 H.264

OK

1080i25 H.264

OK

4K 30FPS H.264

OK

4K 60FPS H.264

Unwatchable (Video lags behind Audio)

1080p24 HEVC

OK

4K 30FPS 8-bit HEVC

OK

4K 30FPS 10-bit HEVC

Not Supported (Crashed Kodi)

1080p VP8

OK

720p Hi10p

OK

1080p Hi10p

Unwatchable (Decoding Issues)

1080p MPEG2

OK

1080p VC1

OK

Unencrypted Bluray ISO (Sintel)

OK (Kodi reported some skipped frames though)

Media playback was generally good, handling all of the most common file formats with ease.

Deinterlacing performance was good, without any obvious artifacting on interlaced samples.

Rikomagic MK06 Review: Gaming Performance

Despite using the Amlogic S905 like a number of other Android TV boxes, the Rikomagic MK06 performed worse than other boxes I’ve tested to date.

Whilst the simpler Jetpack Joyride was perfectly smooth, playing Beach Buggy Racing at 1080p on maximum settings struggled to achieve a playable framerate. Lowering the graphics settings to the default lead to a much more pleasant experience.

Gaming Controllers and Bluetooth

I didn’t have any issues hooking up my GameSir G3 via Bluetooth and use it to play Beach Buggy Racing.

SixAxis Compatibility Checker reports that the MK06 should be compatible so you should be able to hook up your PS3 controller via Bluetooth.

Rikomagic MK06 Review: Networking

Networking performance was tested using Wifi performance was tested using Wifi Speed Test, conducting 3 tests and averaging the results. My router is approximately 5m away, with a single wall between the router and the device. WiFi performance is heavily impacted by a number of factors so your performance may vary.

Wireless Performance

Wireless performance was pretty good on the Rikomagic MK06, with upload and download speeds of 40.6Mbps and 49.8Mbps respectively.

In terms of real world performance, I was able to stream 1080p and 4K H.264 videos from my NFS share without buffering. However, I did experience terrible buffering at one stage that seemed to resolve itself after a reboot so I’m not sure what happened.

Ethernet Performance

Ethernet performance was reasonable, with upload and download speeds of 627.8Mbps and 873.9Mbps respectively.

Rikomagic MK06 Review: Benchmarks

Benchmark

Score

Antutu 6.0

25390

Antutu Video Tester 3.0

893

3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited

Wouldn’t Finish

3DMark Ice Storm Extreme

4261

GeekBench 3 Single Core

600

GeekBench 3 Multi Core

1248

Benchmarking performance was either on par or lower than other Amlogic S905 boxes I’ve tested to date. Antutu and GeekBench 3 Multi-Core were noticeably lower than competing boxes.

Interestingly, Antutu kept reporting that the MK06 didn’t complete the 3D component of the benchmark, which is why the score is so much lower than other Amlogic S905 boxes.

Furthermore, I wasn’t able to get a score for Ice Storm Unlimited in 3DMark as the benchmark kept terminating before it finished.

Having so many issues with the 3D side suggests there’s either a hardware issue or Rikomagic have a lot more work to do with the firmware.

Rikomagic MK06 Review: Power Consumption

Off

Standby

Idle

1080p24 Video

Under Load

0W

0.5W

2.5W

3.9W

6.5W

Should You Get One?

The Rikomagic MK06 is a flawed Android TV box from Rikomagic. It handled media playback well, though no automatic framerate switching in Kodi is disappointing. However, this combined with lackluster 3D gaming performance make it hard to recommend over more polished Amlogic S905 boxes available.